Who took the risk all those years ago and invested a large part of his personal stake in a small and relatively unknown (outside the cargo world ) airline called Channel Express ???
He who takes the risk reaps the reward and gets to dictate the terms and conditions.
We all know people out of work who took 100% pay cut but crikey their terms and conditions were fantastic right up to the day before they were made redundant.
Personally i am happy lets see where the market takes us. Supply and demand is key,when there is a demand for pilots then i am sure the T's and C's will go up, at the moment the demand is low therefore you do not really have a negotiating leg to stand on.
I am waiting for someone to shout "its not fair" well no on a level playing field it is not fair. On the point of reduced Summer leave well you had the option to opt in or opt out. Personally i opted to take Summer leave and the way it worked on my roster was fantastic and i got more leave than i anticipated. What i have noticed is that my Summer roster is approx 60% more stable this Summer than last, last year i flew every standby, this year i have standby's that actually remain as standbys. So if the by product of reduced Summer leave was in fact a much more stable roster then personally i think it was a fair trade.
Surely like every other business in the UK the company are going to cut their costs which is what they are doing. They will cut the costs until we all "squeak", however if that means i retain my salary and my job and the company expands in the future then personally it gets my support.
In this day and age you have to be a realist, the reality is you have a job probably close to your family home, probably fly quite sociable hours, get a reasonable salary, have a very good chance of having a job this time next year.
The reality of a P45 is an even harsher option.............